ITALY
Chinese rally against crime
Thousands of Chinese immigrants took to the streets of Rome on Tuesday to protest at a lack of security in the capital following the murder of a Chinese man and his baby last week. Tearful demonstrators held up white candles and flowers in the march to the crime scene, which was organized by the Chinese community. “People are exasperated,” said one organizer, Lucia King, who put the number of demonstrators in the immigrant-heavy Piazza Vittorio neighborhood at about 10,000. “Some people have been robbed or mugged six or seven times.”
SOUTH AFRICA
One killed in stampede
Women screamed, but the crowd of South Africans desperate for a chance to study kept pushing at the university gate. The stampede killed a mother who had accompanied her son to an in-person application day at the Johannesburg campus, and two other people were seriously injured, officials said. Thousands of young people and their parents had begun gathering at the University of Johannesburg campus on Monday to seek admission. Space was limited— about 11,000 people were expected to vie for as few as 800 spots — a symptom of a larger crisis in education and perhaps contributing to a sense of desperation on Tuesday. Desmond Mlangu, a prospective student, said he witnessed the “traumatizing” scene, with women screaming and people continuing to push. He said those at the back of the crowd did not seem to realize what was happening at the gate.
UNITED KINGDOM
Scots to vote on leaving UK
Prime Minister David Cameron’s government confirmed on Tuesday it would sweep away legal hurdles to allow the Scots a vote on whether their country should become independent for the first time since the 18th Century Act of Union, which united Scotland with England to create Great Britain. However, in return, Cameron — who opposes any breakup of the UK — is urging Scotland to make its intentions clear “sooner rather than later.” He claims investors are becoming increasingly wary of Scottish leader Alex Salmond’s plans to delay a vote for several years, damaging Britain’s economy.
SYRIA
Hundreds more killed
An estimated 400 people have been killed since an Arab League mission arrived in the country to monitor the uprising against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, UN political chief B. Lynn Pascoe said on Tuesday. Pascoe provided the latest figures in a closed-door report to the 15-member UN Security Council on the Syrian uprising that has already claimed more than 5,000 lives since it began almost 10 months ago, diplomats said. US Ambassador Susan Rice said the rate of killings, an average of 40 a day, was even higher than before the monitors arrived.
RUSSIA
Opposition plan large rally
Opposition groups on Tuesday said they would hold a rally near the Kremlin next month, stepping up pressure on Prime Minister Vladimir Putin over a controversial election win by his party. Putin has already faced large opposition protests against his 12-year rule following the Dec. 4 parliamentary vote, which protesters and international observers said was marred by violations and fraud. Liberal opposition leader Vladimir Ryzhkov said protesters would apply for permission to hold rallies in Moscow and other Russian cities on Feb. 4.
THAILAND
Aggressive official demoted
A customs official has been demoted over a YouTube video that shows him hitting an airport security officer while refusing to be patted down. Footage from a surveillance camera at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport shows the official striding through a security check, fiercely objecting to being searched and then whacking the officer’s ears. The official then pointed to his badge and the junior officer bowed apologetically. The video has a Sunday time stamp and was posted on Monday. By Tuesday it had attracted more than 5,000 angry comments. Customs Department Director-General Somchai Poolsavasdi said the official had been transferred to an office job during an investigation into his “distressing” behavior. The department released only the official’s first name, Sombat.
INDIA
Train crash kills four
A railway official says at least four people were killed when a passenger train collided with a freight train in northern India. Local station master K.P. Singh said a freight train at the Karanpuratu railway station in Jharkhand State rolled backward onto a track just before a Delhi-bound passenger train pulled into the station on the same track. He said the resulting collision at 5:40am yesterday killed four people and injured five others. Accidents are common on India’s railroad network — one of the world’s largest, with about 14 million passengers daily. Most collisions are blamed on poor maintenance and human error.
INDIA
Twelve die in bus accident
An official said that a bus in northern India fell down a steep gorge in dense fog, killing 12 people and injuring 13 others. Uttarakhand State government spokesman Amit Chandola said the bus fell into the 100m deep gorge in the Uttarkashi region early yesterday. Chandola said the accident happened when the driver failed to manage a sharp curve because of the dense fog. Accidents are common in hilly Uttarakhand State, many of them because of bad roads, aging vehicles or negligence.
INDONESIA
Strong quake hits Aceh
A powerful earthquake hit off the coast of western Indonesia early yesterday, prompting officials to briefly issue a tsunami warning. Panicked residents ran from their homes, some fleeing to high ground by car or motorcycle, but there were no reports of injuries or serious damage. The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 7.3 quake struck 420km off the coast of Aceh Province just after midnight. It was centered 30km beneath the ocean floor. People in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh — still deeply traumatized by the 2004 monster quake and tsunami — poured into the streets as sirens blared from local mosques. Some headed to the hills, choking roads with traffic. In the town of Simeulue, patients were evacuated from a hospital. Officials in several coastal cities, however, had not received any reports about injuries or significant damage. Nearly two hours after the quake, the local geological agency lifted its tsunami warning. Indonesia is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin. A giant earthquake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, half of them in Aceh.
UNITED STATES
Driver swims from police
A suspected drunk driver escaped arrest in California on Tuesday by diving into the sea and swimming off — but a friend left in the car gave officers his name and contact details, police said. The 28-year-old man, who was not identified, took to the waves after being pulled over in Pacific Beach, north of San Diego at about 2:30am, San Diego Police Department spokesperson Andra Brown said. Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, he jumped out of the pick-up truck and sprinted to the shoreline, before jumping into the sea and swimming out of sight. Several hours later, his family called police to say he had been in touch and would give himself up to police.
UNITED STATES
Arson mom fights extradition
The mother of a German man accused of a four-day arson spree in Los Angeles railed in court on Tuesday against efforts to extradite her back to Germany, saying she would be “killed” there. Dorothee Burkhart also denied that her son, Harry, charged with setting more than 50 fires allegedly fueled by anti-US anger over his mother’s legal fight, was an arsonist. “If you send me to Germany I can’t fight anything and I will be killed,” the 53-year-old, wanted in Germany on 19 fraud-related charges, told a judge in Los Angeles.
BOLIVIA
Coca growers give ultimatum
Coca producers in the central region of La Asunta issued an ultimatum on Tuesday, demanding that soldiers and police withdraw by the next day or face confiscation of their trucks, tents and clothing. Military and police are in the fertile region destroying illegal coca crops that could be used to make cocaine. Coca crops are a significant income source for many residents of La Asunta. If the government did not withdraw the military and police by yesterday’s deadline, “all the property [of the joint task force] will be given to social organizations,” said Mario Miranda, secretary general of the union of coca growers of La Asunta.
CANADA
Family faces extradition
Relatives of a young woman murdered in India after she ignored her family’s wishes and married a poor rickshaw driver for love face a court hearing this week that could see them extradited. The mother and uncle of the dead woman, Jassi Sidhu, were arrested in Vancouver on Friday, after India requested they be extradited to face charges over the murder, which took place 11 years ago. Sidhu was found with her throat slit in a ditch in Punjab. Her husband, Sukwinder (Mithu) Singh Sidhu, was badly beaten in the attack, one year after they wed in secret against her family’s demand that she marry someone else. Investigations “uncovered evidence indicating Jassi Sidhu’s family were involved in the homicide,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.
PERU
Van der Sloot plea likely
Dutchman Joran van der Sloot was scheduled for a hearing yesterday before a court where he was likely to admit having killed a young woman in May 2010, according to his attorney. Van der Sloot’s defense attorney said he would be ready to fully admit the prosecution’s charges that blame him for killing Stephany Flores, 21, “with cruelty and ferocity” in a Lima hotel on May 30, 2010 after they met playing poker in a casino. She was found dead after being beaten and strangled. The case is being followed in the US because the accused is considered a suspect in the May 2005 disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of